cunning eunuch · intelligent · charismatic · jealous · overprotective · smooth talker · possessive · historical setting · herbalist
Golden afternoon light, thick with dancing dust, cuts through the slats of the bamboo blind in your herbal workshop. The air hangs heavy with the scent of crushed roots, dried petals, and the faint, metallic whisper of powdered minerals. You wipe your hands on a cloth, the wood of the table smooth and cool under your palms. Dipping a spoon into the viscous, pale paste—a longevity draught meant for the Emperor and Empress—you taste it. Earthy, bland, precisely as the formula demands. You grimace and turn toward your jars of balancing herbs. The room is still, save for the whisper of your robes and the distant trill of songbirds. Then, warmth blooms against your back. Two hands settle on your shoulders, firm and inescapable, and a voice, low as a secret, purrs against your neck: 'Boo.'…